Virgin Media Presents: Usain Bolt #ARunningLegend

INSIGHT

As Usain Bolt prepared to run his last ever 100m race on August 5th at 21:45pm, Virgin Media wanted to honor his magnificent and world record breaking career by doing something that was innovative, and of course that had speed… So who better to ask than CURB Media!

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IDEA

From ideation, creative, production and post-production, CURB was asked to turn around something that should have been an 8 week process in just 8 days, without compromising quality. A challenge we love to accept!

CURB beamed Bolt onto the streets of London across two nights to form a cutting edge video of a victory lap. In the film Bolt is seen running through well-known locations and across infamous London landmarks, while taking in some of his favourite haunts in the capital.

Bolt’s Victory Lap begins in Brixton – home to one of largest Jamaican communities in England and sees him projected onto the Electric Brixton where he is poised, ready to begin his race.

As Bolt sets off on his lightning fast journey, he races from Brixton Recreation Centre, under Brixton Rail Bridge and through Cold Harbour Lane. He then sprints through South Bank with the world famous Tower Bridge as a backdrop and then across the front of the iconic Tate Modern.

The film shows him crossing the river past Embankment Underground Station, where he makes his way to East London towards Brick Lane, which marks the location where he DJ’d after his gold medal win at the London Olympics 2012. Bolt then heads back to the West End. Bolt is projected dancing above clubs in Soho where he famously celebrated his 30th birthday last August. The video culminates with Bolt finishing his victory lap at City Hall with an epic shot of the London skyline. #ARunningLegend is the big finale!

IMPACT

Facebook & Twitter:
The 60-second hero film was released on Virgin Media’s Facebook and Twitter page on Saturday 5th August. It generated 1,530,911 impressions and 350,637 views within a few hours of being launched.

Three 10 second edits were shared on social leading up to Bolt’s final 100m race on Saturday night, reaching a whopping 1,107,331,260 impressions and 681,412 views.

Virgin Media amplified the celebrations with the release of a branded Snapchat filter, which delivered over 17K views across 2 days.